Maxcalibur

I understand that the demographic of professionals on this site is quite high meaning that most of you probably don't have time for such a project. Does anyone know of a forum where this kind of thing would be more easily received? I will still leave this thread here in case someone interested stumbles across it!

My website idea is a user driven site and forum, aimed at promoting and aiding IRL community projects and volunteering in the UK. It will be completely non-profit, and it seems to me that it makes sense for the site to be built on a foundation of volunteering and community spirit, if that is what it is to be about. Idealistic and rose tinted, I know. The goal will be to provide a platform, for people who want to start community projects or get involved with volunteering, to get in touch with each other, share ideas, arrange events, provide advice etc. There will be a lot of research and planning on my part to get this off the ground and it certainly isn't a small web project either (although I imagine many of the features such as user profiles and forums are fairly standard?). However, I myself have a full time research degree to carry out, as well as other commitments, so I am not asking anyone else to use up their time, that they would otherwise be using to earn money, on this project. Instead this is something for anyone who has spare time and wants to make a contribution to society with it! If you are someone who is an amateur rather than a professional and just wants a nice project or to hone your skills, this may be for you. Of course, any advice from pros and amateurs alike would be welcome! This is of course a long term project and I will be working to secure some funding towards it for long term maintenance and updating of the site. Anyway, at the moment it is highly up for discussion so all replies are welcome. EDIT: What I should also mention, is that I am certainly up for learning on the project as well as managing and researching.

I've just graduated from Uni and am about to do a postgrad degree, although not in anything web related. I completely agree with everyone who says go to uni but not to do the course you specified. It was a fantastic experience, opening up many opportunities and, as many have said, teaching a lot more than just your course. One understated thing about going to uni now, is that the countless societies give you the chance to do activities at a fraction of the price they would normally cost if you weren't a student. You can do anything from eating curry to gliding highly subsidised. Anyway, that might be slightly off the point. What's your maths like? A maths/computer science related degree could be very helpful, especially if you ever do end up needing to seek employment. Alternatively, anything as suggested before such as business would probably bolster the skills you haven't yet mastered that will be handy in the world of web design. Even a course in something design based might be beneficial in helping you to make great looking sites, as well as just being good at coding. Bottom line is go to uni but do something that you won't be wasting your time on!

Thanks. I appreciate now that many people on here are looking to make a living from web design. It's difficult to tell, without having this kind of discussion, what the community demographic is with regards to the percentage of professionals. I completely understand that anyone who is working seriously may not want to take time out to do this. I'm in full time research so this will be a spare time project for myself. This is exactly the kind of person I thought may be interested and I certainly wouldn't expect anyone to be working flat out, solely on this or for an immediate highly refined result. I will post in another forum and we will see where it goes from there! I'm certainly here to learn how to do this kind of thing for myself too, but in the meantime, if anyone has any physics related questions, perhaps I can help with that...

For a community that is so geared around contribution, I would have actually thought that this was a good place to start. The way you have put my idea makes it sound like what I am aiming to do is take advantage and freeload for personal gain, so no, that does not sound good. What I am in fact offering, is an opportunity to volunteer in a project to promote positive change for yourself and others. I don't imagine that you criticise the people out there on the ground who run community projects and volunteer IRL. This is not so different, merely providing a service in order to facilitate and encourage what they do. I do not underestimate the time and effort that this will require, and web building will not be the only part involved. Perhaps for someone who has a pressing need to make a living and already has their time full, this would not be ideal. But, for someone who does not have many responsibilities (perhaps younger), this is an opportunity to work on something other than oneself. Should the whole of WDF back you on your comment then of course this was the wrong place to come. I have only meant to clarify my request.

Hi Everyone, I'm a physics postgraduate at Imperial college and I live in South London. My coding knowledge is next to nothing and the only web design package I own is MS Expression thanks to MSDNAA! I do have a slight amount of experience with Drupal too. I am very computer literate, and dabble in trying to do various things so it's more been a matter of not being able to find the time to ever sit down and really learn web building basics rather than not being able to. Certainly willing to put in the time once I have a real project that gets off the ground though. My question to the admin/mods is this: After having read the "LOOKING FOR FREE WORK? READ THIS FIRST!" thread in Looking to Hire forum, I considered that I should ask whether my potential post would be acceptable. My website idea is a user driven site and forum, aimed at promoting and aiding IRL community projects and volunteering in the UK. It will be completely non-profit, and it seems to me that it makes sense for the site to be built in a foundation of volunteering and community spirit, if that is what it is to be about. Idealistic and rose tinted, I know. If the site grew to an appreciable size, it would be possible to apply for funding through grants to then provide a budget to pay for people's time. To begin with, I cannot see the site using too many features that I guess would not be considered standard today ie. simple pages, user profiles, forum etc If it is considered that on these forums it would not be well received, then I would still be happy to take consultation and advice from those with experience.